Wait for Me
by EmmileneRosalina
Summary: SasuNaru OneShot. Shounen Ai. After Sasuke's return to Konoha, Naruto was never the same. When he leaves on an Sranked mission without telling anybody, what will happen to the little dobe? WARNING: PLOT BUNNIES GOT ME.


Uzumaki Naruto leaned the majority of his weight against the mahogany double doors, tanned hand lightly brushing over the bronze doorknob for what seemed like the 17th time that day. After he had a decent haircut and a change in clothing for the winter, he was almost an exact likeness of his idol, the 4th Hokage, right down to the flames on the trench coat. Although Naruto's coat was black rather than white, he made sure to keep at least some of his fox-like love of orange, no matter how much Sakura nagged him. It truly looked well kept together, with his heavy orange scarf pulled up to cover half of his face; a death threat from Sakura was a threat indeed, and she didn't like taking care of her teammates when they were sick. She said the memories of the strange illness during the Chuunin exams still traumatized her, and everybody backed off at that.

Naruto sighed softly, the breath that managed to escape from the confines of the scarf made the cold air around it visible. The Jinchuuriki walked silently down the snow-covered steps and lay down on the fluffy bed of crystals to stare up at the sky, his mind clearing easier as the blurry snowflakes floated down from the clouds. The blonde boy pulled his scarf down a little bit and put his arms behind his head. Maybe if he was lucky, he would be so covered in snow that nobody would ever find him. Scratch that. Tsunade would send Hyuugas, TonTon, Kiba, Akamaru, Kakashi, Pakkun... Anybody with anything that would be useful for finding something or someone, Tsunade would send them after him.

Ever since Naruto had brought Sasuke back, he had started feeling strange. An emptiness somewhere that was slowly eating away at his personality. Indeed, he had gone for days without eating a thing, only worrying Kakashi. After all, Sasuke-kun was back after abandoning the village for revenge and power. Why would anybody need him anymore? Even Sakura had gone back to tripping over her words when she talked to him, sounding like a bumbling fool. Maybe Shikamaru had been right all those years. Maybe women were just too troublesome to deal with.

Naruto's eyes fogged over slightly and he drifted into a meditative state of mind. Although everybody thought they knew all about the usually orange-clad ninja, they really didn't know anything at all. Nobody thus far had even wondered into his past, why it was so hard for him to study or learn, or why he cursed the way he did. They just didn't care. He was a freak, and that was the end of it. Why did it have to be this way? His eyes shut closed, daring himself to cry. He had stopped crying long ago, even before Inari. Sooner or later, he knew, it just wasn't worth it to be sad anymore. Inari... that was quite a while ago. He and Sasuke had risked their lives for one another, even though they hated each other, and they didn't even know why.

The blonde coughed slightly, cursing a bit. Sakura was going to kill him for getting sick. Oh well. There goes that plan of action. Resigned to the fact that he was going to get punched through a wall later allowed Naruto to actually relax and try to think. He had always been completely and utterly alone. He had never known his parents. Sasuke had once had parents, a family...

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he heard the slight crunching of snow nearby to him. Definitely a ninja, but not somebody who overly cared if they were heard. Probably Sasuke. "Oi, dobe." Yep. That was undeniably Sasuke. "What do you want from me, Sasuke-san?" The blonde rolled over tiredly. The raven ninja quirked a brow at his friend's strange behavior, immediately dismissing it as his imagination. He sat next to the blonde boy. "I just wanted to talk." Naruto played with one of the buttons on his trench coat. "What about?" "Just... before I left, you mentioned we still had bonds. Like I was a... brother to you." Naruto's eyes dulled a bit. Had he been a fox like the Kyuubi inside of him, his ears, whiskers, and tails would have drooped immensely. "I never had a brother," the Jinchuuriki commented blandly, "and the day you left, you made me realize how horrible it was for you, at that age... I... gomen-nasai, Sasuke... I shouldn't have..."

Sasuke bristled a little bit, but he calmed down. "Well, Naruto... My brother... We all thought we knew him, how he would respond to things, his friends and intentions... but we didn't. He killed his best friend and our whole clan." The Kyuubi bijou nodded, confused at the fact that this information was being bestowed unto him, of all people. "I... you're more like a brother to me than that monster ever could have been... but I need to be sure. I want to know about you, Naruto." The blonde blinked. Was somebody pulling a prank? Maybe it was a genjutsu?

After a few failed dispelling techniques failed, he accepted it as real. "Okay, Sasuke. I'll tell you. But if you use it against me, I swear I'll get you back, 'tebayo!" The raven smirked slightly to himself; there was the Naruto he knew. His hair bristled in annoyance as yet another person came towards the Hokage tower. Sasuke could faintly recall this person being a Mandarin Chinese monk from the monastery that had set themselves up a few miles away from the Uchiha complex, up on a mountain. He turned and opened his mouth to remind Naruto to be polite, but the blonde was already standing in a half bow. "Wan shyang hau. Ni hao ma?" "Ah, Naruto. Hen hao. Xie xie. Ni hao?" Sasuke's mouth would have been hitting the floor if he was normal and had a normal childhood, but Naruto was the number one most surprising ninja ever. After the conversation was over, Sasuke eyed the dobe as though he had grown another head. Naruto blushed and buried his head in his arms to hide it.

"Teme, why are you staring at me?" His voice came out in a squeak of embarrassment. "Naruto, why do you speak Mandarin Chinese? And why didn't you tell me?" The blonde boy clamped his hands over his ears and resumed his squeaky replies. "U-um... Mandarin Ch-Chinese is my f-first language... I-I taught myself J-Japanese when I m-moved to Konoha... And you didn't ask..." In truth, Naruto had thought he wouldn't have needed to ask. The day he was introduced to his class at the academy by their teacher, the sensei had explained thoroughly that the class would need to help him with his Japanese; he came from a Chinese monastery etc, etc. But nobody listened, and he eventually spent his nights in the Konoha bars, trying to pick up and understand the language in the one place he wasn't kicked out of due to his demon.

Therefore, his Japanese was riddled with curses, people thought he was a freak, and by the time he could understand what the heck sensei was talking about, and he was too far behind the rest of the class to be a genius like he had been at the monastery. Yes, Naruto had once been a genius. Reminiscing his past wasn't going to help sort out his feelings, though. He shook his head to clear it. Sasuke sat down, sulking a little bit. The blonde lay back down the way he had been before Sasuke had shown up. "I don't want to go into my past. And I won't go into yours."

"Fine, fine..." Sasuke backed off, putting his hands up in defeat. Naruto sighed and nudged his head back into his arms. "Teme..." He said is very quietly, Sasuke had to strain to hear him. "Nani, Naruto?" "Um, I-" "Ohayo, Sasuke-kun!" The pink-haired kunoichi squeaked, landing on top of Naruto, whose only reaction was a miniscule 'oof'. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, both annoyed at being interrupted and slightly concerned for his usually melodramatic friend. He ignored it instead. "Sakura." He braced himself for the glomp, still rolling back a few feet. After a few threats, the pink-haired kunoichi finally jumped away, crying and saying something about denial. Naruto looked back over at the reformed teenager sitting next to him. "You know what, Sasuke? You must be gay or something. I've never met anybody that's turned down that many girls before..." The raven-haired boy leaned back, coming face to face with the quieter-than-normal blonde boy speaking, an amused smile coming to his face. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

"That's not a good answer, teme!" The kitsune boy thwacked Sasuke on the back of the head, flinching slightly at the contact. "Gomen, Sasuke..." The elder boy locked obsidian eyes with sapphire. "Why are you sorry? You didn't hit me nearly as hard as you used to, and you were never sorry before..." Naruto bowed his head slightly. "Like I said before, gomen..." Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly and he brought his hand behind the blonde's head and fisted his hair. The younger bit his lip and gripped his coat tightly, knuckles turning white from the pressure. "Onegai, Sasuke... stop it..." Naruto's eyes shone over in a glaze of tears and he turned his head slightly, wincing from his hair being pulled. The raven-haired boy let go curiously, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Since when was the blonde so damn... sensitive? "You really turned into a girl, you know? And I'm not talking Oirioke no jutsu or anything, either, dobe. What happened?"

The usually impulsive of the two flinched and pulled away. "It's none of your business, teme." The blonde looked at his hands with unblinking blue eyes for a minute before lowering his head again. "I meant Sasuke-san. Sumimasen..." Onyx eyes blinked in surprise. Naruto blushed and turned his head again. "Why are you here anyway, usuratonkachi?" The sharpness of Sasuke's voice with him almost made the blonde sad, but he could have expected it. It was Sasuke, after all. "I... I got promoted to ANBU a few weeks ago..." Sasuke lifted his eyebrows in surprise. That was after he had been brought back. Why didn't anybody tell him? "Tsunade-san was going to give me a mission..." The Uchiha boy's eyes narrowed and he stood up, arms crossed and glaring. "See?! This is what I'm talking about, dobe! 'Tsunade-san'? What happened to 'baa-chan'? Why are you so distant these days? For Kami's sake, Naruto, TELL ME!"

The Uzumaki boy let a fragile smile grace his face, accenting his shining; partially-open eyes as he lay back again, wispy hair falling around his whiskered cheeks. "You still don't understand. I can't expect you to..." Naruto unexpectedly leaned forward, brushing his lips past Sasuke's ear. "...because you always had somebody who expected you to go farther. Whether it was the Academy senseis, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Ino, or even Orochimaru, you always had somebody there who believed in you because of who you are..." Sasuke's eyes closed a little bit. Naruto's voice wasn't as annoying quiet as it was loud. It almost made him sleepy. "...Sasuke, the last survivor of the great Uchiha clan..." Naruto tried to cancel out all of the bitterness, but the Uchiha boy still got the message. "...Uchiha Sasuke yet again manages to ace school, life, and the world with his dazzling smile and good looks." Yet again, the blonde attempted to cancel out the sarcasm, but he knew that the raven-haired boy could still catch it, due to the half-smirk on his face.

The Uzumaki boy draped his arms over Sasuke's shoulders and let out a near-inaudible sigh. Sasuke might have twitched. "What do you think you're doing, dobe?" The blonde boy nuzzled his neck, to bother him, the Uchiha suspected with annoyance. "I can't hold myself upwards. I'm too tired." Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Too tired? You're not Naruto. Uzumaki was Mr. Stamina himself." The blonde boy looked upwards at the sky longingly. How he wanted to just float down to the ground with the snow, carefree and without a purpose. "I guess Uzumaki died then." The Uchiha didn't reply. He couldn't. "Naruto..." The raven-haired boy's eyes widened a bit in surprise as the younger of the two stopped his talking with a finger. Onyx eyes connected with sapphire in questioning. "I always really liked you, Sasuke..." The last Uchiha's eyes widened even farther than ever as he felt the blonde's lips against his neck, which was burning. Naruto stood up. "I have to go, Sasuke-san..." Shizune's calls became gradually louder and the loudmouthed ninja stood up and walked back over to the double doors. His hands touched the bronze knobs for the 18th time that day, actually opening them and stepping through the mahogany doorway.

Sasuke touched his neck hesitantly where his curse seal had once been. Naruto... He didn't know what to think. Did he love Naruto? He didn't think he'd ever understand. The raven-haired boy stood and walked around in circles, contemplating his course of action. If he loved Naruto, he should tell him, right? But he didn't know. If he didn't love Naruto, what would happen? An image from his past swirled into focus involuntarily. The blonde's forehead protector was off for a change; his hair was surprisingly non-spiky when it wasn't pulled up, Sasuke recalled thinking with a smirk. It was an onsen, it was three in the morning, Naruto had every right to think that he was alone. He wasn't. Kakashi had tied Sasuke to a tree for making him drop his book, and he was facing the onsen with a gag around his mouth. The blonde had almost immediately fallen into meditation, making Sasuke wonder exactly how he managed to be so loud all of the time. He couldn't even understand what he was saying at that point. It wasn't that it was blurred; no, it was quite loud, it was like a different language altogether. His eyes opened slowly, looking somewhat distant, sparkling three different shades of cerulean. Sasuke let go of the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

A quiet sob broke Sasuke's train of thought. He looked over to an indigo-haired girl sitting on a bench. Hinata, he thought. "Hinata?" Teary opal eyes opened to his slowly. "H-hai, Sasuke-kun?" The raven-haired boy needed to get his mind off the situation at hand. "What's wrong, Hinata?" The long-haired girl sobbed into her hands again. "Naruto-kun left for his mission already..." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. How long had he been thinking? He gave the girl a short hug and ran off to a place that was only somewhat familiar to him.

The raven-haired boy slammed through the door to the empty apartment, almost causing the landlady to have a heart attack while she placed more items from the room into a bag. "Jeez, do boys these days know nothing of common courtesy? Why, in my day-" "Where is Naruto?" The brown-haired elder looked over him with a suspicious eye. "You look mighty anxious, sonny." "I asked where Naruto is. Tell me now." The lady looked him up and down again. "That Uzumaki boy cancelled his contract and gave the room back. Sixteen years, he lived in here..." Sasuke felt his heart speed up twice as fast; he grabbed the bag, not without protest from the landlady, and he rushed out the door again. Tsunade.

He threw the doors to her office open, making her scatter her papers everywhere. "Oh, it's just you. Damned brat... dropped my papers all over the place..." She sounded like she was trying to cover up mass misery. "Where is Naruto?" Tsunade looked up. That wasn't a question. That was a demand. "Naruto is on a mission. You should know that." "What mission did you give him?" Tsunade bristled slightly. "...S-ranked..." Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, but he brushed it off. Why would that bother him? Naruto could handle himself. He'd taken S-ranks before. What was so different about this time? Tsunade bit her lip and looked up. There was something she wasn't telling him, and they both knew it. She bent down to pick up her papers to distract herself, when a paper caught Sasuke's eye. Before she could yell at him to drop it, Sasuke had already scanned it.

Hokage-Sama-

We need an able-bodied ninja willing to risk life and limb for a mission, preferably ANBU. Said ninja must be able to accept almost imminent death. Ninja must create diversion for Kumo ninja to recover Fujikaze's daughter. Suicide mission. Survival rate: 0.5

-Fujikaze

The raven-haired boy felt his anger building up in his shoulder. He felt the paper become a ball in his hands as he turned on the old woman. "How could you let him just go?! Why a suicide mission?! I thought he was the only thing that made you want to be Hokage! Why?!" Tsunade shook her head slowly, pigtails waving. "He asked. I keep a certain number of these missions in a container. When somebody asks for one, I give it to them without a question. Somebody has to do them, and Konoha needs the funding." Sasuke stared dumbly at her. Naruto? Suicide? Those two words didn't belong together. "He said that he had to say something important, he was empty and didn't know what to do anymore. He said that afterwards he didn't want to hear the response because he knew it would be disappointing to him."

Sasuke ran. He didn't know what to do. The raven-haired boy knelt in front of the monument that his sensei had sat before so many times, lamenting his lost best friend. Now it was time for the next generation to begin. Sasuke threw the bag he had been carrying in anger, hearing pages ruffling in the wind. He was about to close the journal, but he stopped at the date. November 23rd. The day Naruto dragged the raven-haired boy back to Konoha.

'Finally dragged Sasuke-teme back from the black abyss he's been sitting in for three years. Took him long enough. He wouldn't come out unless he was carrying his brother and Orochimaru's heads. He really needs to grow up...'

Other pages were blurred. Sasuke flipped to the next one that wasn't. Yesterday. December 12th.

'I don't know what's wrong with me... like there's some sort of emptiness eating at my soul... I requested a suicide mission from Tsunade-san... have to tell Sasuke...'

Random words were blotted out. Sasuke cursed the dewy grass that had soaked into the pages.

Sasuke looked around for something he knew would be in the bag. The brown frame. The photo of Team 7 stared back at him, all making stupid faces like all kids would in a picture. He pulled the picture out of the frame carefully and flipped it over. Just as he suspected. There was a note from Naruto scrawled on the back with that adorable handwriting of his.

'Wait for me.'

Three months later, a very tired looking blonde stumbled into Konoha, bloody and mangled, but alive. He made his way to his old apartment building in an almost drunken stupor, somehow managing to barter with the landlady for his old room back. The blonde would have to turn in his mission report tomorrow, he thought bitterly. Opening the door to his dusty apartment, he let out a tired, "I'm home!" as he'd done for every night of his life.

The apartment was absolutely clean. It was as though he had never left. Naruto ran his fingers over his whisker marks, perplexed. "Oi, dobe." The blonde turned to the familiar voice, immediately pressed up against a wall, lips smashed together with Sasuke's. Rather than fighting it, the younger of the two's eyes misted over in complete bliss as he melted into the kiss. The foggy eyes lit up as Sasuke nipped at the skin on his neck lightly before resting his chin on Naruto's shoulder and breathing deeply.

"I love you, dobe. Welcome home."


End file.
